James Patrick Howley (born 7 July 1847 near St. John's,

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

and died 1 January 1918 at St. John's) was a naturalist and geologist, one of the first Newfoundlanders of European descent to visit the interior of the island of

at the Bay du Nord River system.

Biography

Howley, son of Richard Howley and Eliza Burke was educated at

Saint Bonaventure's College St. Bonaventure's College (commonly called St. Bon's) is an independent kindergarten to grade 12 Catholic School in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It is located in the St. John's Ecclesiastical District, adjacent to the Roman Cat ...

, St. John's, Newfoundland. For a time he worked in the office of the colonial secretary, but his fame came when he participated in the geographical and topographical survey of the

colony of Newfoundland Newfoundland Colony was an English and, later, British colony established in 1610 on the island of Newfoundland off the Atlantic coast of Canada, in what is now the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. That followed decades of sporadic English ...

. In the course of his surveying he met John Peyton, Jr., who along with his father had captured the

Beothuk The Beothuk ( or ; also spelled Beothuck) were a group of indigenous people who lived on the island of Newfoundland. Beginning around AD 1500, the Beothuk culture formed. This appeared to be the most recent cultural manifestation of peoples w ...

woman

Demasduit Demasduit ( 1796 – January 8, 1820) was a Beothuk woman, one of the last of her people on Newfoundland. Biography Demasduit was born , near the end of the 18th century. It was once believed that the Beothuk population had been decimated by c ...

. Peyton related to Howley many stories of the Beothuk. This started a life long fascination with the indigenous people of the island of Newfoundland, and Howley began collecting artifacts, oral history and documents which related to the Beothuk. His collection culminated in the publication of ''The Beothucks or Red Indians'', which was published by

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

in 1915. The book remains an important source on the Beothuk. Howley was also a founding director of the

Newfoundland Museum The Rooms is a cultural facility in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The facility opened in 2005 and houses the Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Provincial Muse ...

Legacy

In 2016, he was named a National Historic Person.James Patrick Howley (1847-1918), Parks Canada backgrounder, Feb. 15, 2016
/ref> His son

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

served in the

Newfoundland House of Assembly The Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly is the unicameral deliberative assembly of the General Assembly of Newfoundland and Labrador of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It meets in the Confederation Building in St. Jo ...

. In May 2009 W.J. Kirwin and P.A. O'Flaherty published an edited version of Howley's ''Reminiscences of Forty-two Years of Exploration in and about Newfoundland.''

References

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Howley, James Patrick 1847 births 1918 deaths Newfoundland Colony people Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)

Biography

Legacy

See also

References

External links